WIFT-T is pleased to announce Mishann Lau as the winner of the 2010 Astral Media Mentorship.

The Astral Media Mentorship is a national competitive program that gives one Canadian female or male producer who is a visible minority, Aboriginal, or an individual with a disability the opportunity to develop their marketing strategy and hone their pitch and presentation skills in preparation for the 2010 Banff World Television Festival. The winner receives a festival bursary and a five day pre-festival mentorship that includes meetings with Astral Media and three intensive workshops with industry consultants.

“This mentorship is so important at this time of limited resources within the industry,” said Sadia Zaman, WIFT-T Executive Director. “During day to day work there are few opportunities to simply build presentation skills and to focus on career development. Our partnership with Astral Media will allow Mishann to do just that. Congratulations Mishann!”

“We are proud to partner with WIFT-T in the third year of this program and to provide opportunities for emerging filmmakers to tell stories that reflect Canada’s diversity and point of view,” said Aubie Greenberg, Director of Original Programming for Astral’s The Movie Network. “Again this year we received interest from an outstanding group of candidates which made the selection process difficult yet exciting. We congratulate the incredibly talented Mishann Lau and look forward to working with her to help further her bright future.”

Mishann has been writing, directing and producing independent short films for the past 12 years. Her films have screened at the San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival, the International Women’s Film Festival in Cologne and the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival, among others. Mishann was also selected to create shorts for the 1997 On the Fly Festival, the 2004 Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival and the 2007 Pride Video Launch.

Dedicated to stories that examine the lives of people of color, Mishann’s films have been described as adventurous and funny, whimsical and defiant. Through her work, she attempts to bring to light the courage and potential of young women. As a sound editor, Mishann garnered Genie and Director’s Guild of Canada (DGC) nominations in 2010, 2007 and 2006, along with a DGC award in 2003 for her work on Queer as Folk.

Click here for more information on the Astral Media Mentorship.

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